Hello
ODK members,
This series of posts discusses the
Pope Wimbledon range of manual push mowers, released in
mid 1949, and
staying in
continuous production (with little change) for over
three decades.
Context:Australia has a long, varied and interesting history of
manual sidewheel mower manufacture. The great Aussie brands
of
Clyde, and
Crowe, and
Presto, and
Rexmow, and the like all deserve recording and recognition.
In the
early 20th Century it was American machines that dominated the Australian market. The British
Qualcast changed
all that with their setting up shop here in
1931. It's probably that single event that encouraged a new dynasty
of Australian manufacturers. The American stranglehold ended.
Post WWII saw two new Aussie kids arrive on the block. Both were large companies and both started their respective
mower operations in the same year -
1949. They were
Ogden and
Pope. For the whole
of the 1950s the TOP THREE players were
Ogden, Pope and Qualcast.
Models:The
Wimbledons were offered in one size:
14 inch. They were offered in
two variants: the
5 bladeand the
7 blade. Apart from that, they were identical.
The
colour scheme and
decals changed over the life of the machine. The original colour was
a rich baked enamel custard-yellow. At some point in the 1960s (I think) the colour changed to
a silver-gold. Decals changed at least three times.
The
Pope Wimbledon was followed by two other models based on the Wimbledon: the
electric Centre Court and the
petrol motor Power Mower.
ConclusionFor completeness, I would like to point out that
Wimbledons were not revolutionary, but they were
refined and they defined what a modern sidewheel should be. In the next section I will discuss two patents
that represent refinement of the sidewheel design.